Convention of Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997

Entered into force on February 16, 2005. As of of July 2010 191 countries have signed and ratified the protocol.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty.

OBJECTIVE: To achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere and to prevent the dangers of climate change.
Human activities are responsible for the increasing of global warming since the mid 20th century. Although human induced warming of the climate will most likely continue, many countries around the world gathered at the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to try and reduce human consumption of human resources.

Examples and Effectivness: The Kyoto Protocol’s effectiveness depends upon two critical factors: whether parties follow the Protocol’s rulebook and comply with their commitments; and whether the emissions data used to assess compliance is reliable.

Predictions of future climate impacts show that the consequences could vary from disruptive to catastrophic.
The minimum warming forecast for the next 100 years is more than twice the 0.6° C increase that has occurred since 1900.
Extreme weather events are striking more often and sea levels have already risen by 10 to 20 cm over pre-industrial averages. Sea level rise will continue for centuries due to the time scales associated with climate processes and feedback's. In its Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC states that the contraction of the Greenland ice sheet is projected to continue to contribute to sea level rise after 2100. If this contraction is sustained for centuries, that would lead to the virtually complete elimination of the Greenland ice sheet and a resulting contribution to sea level rise of about 7m.
So far there weren't many effects of the protocol because of the excess use of natural resources. Instead of reducing the use of our planet, we kill it every day with pollution and waste products.

Who inforced it? The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the group that's responsible for regulation and enforcement of the protocol.

Some countries claim that their costs of following the Convention requirements will stress their economy. This was one reason given by George H. W. Bush for not forwarding the Kyoto Protocol to the United States Senate for ratification. Other countries point to research, such as the Stern Report that calculates the cost of compliance to be less than the cost of the consequences of doing nothing.